1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a recording medium feeding device and a recording apparatus having the same. The recording apparatus described herein is intended to include an ink jet printer, a line printer, a copy machine, a facsimile machine and the like.
2. Related Art
In a recording apparatus such as an ink jet printer, a recording medium is placed on a loading surface disposed in a sheet feeding device. Then, the recording medium is transported by a feed roller from the loading surface to a recording section which is disposed at a position downstream of a feeding path so that recording is performed in the recording section. After recording is performed in the recording section, the recording medium is ejected from the recording apparatus by an ejection unit.
In such a recording apparatus, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4237346, a feed roller is disposed at a position that opposes the loading surface on which the recording medium is placed, and is configured to move onto and away from the recording medium which is placed on the loading surface.
If the feed roller in a feeding device is configured to be in contact with the recording medium even during the time that the feed roller does not feed the recording medium, it may cause a problem in that additional recording media may not be easily set, or the recording medium may have deformation, damage or smudge due to the feed roller which is in contact with the surface of the recording medium for an extended period of time. Accordingly, the above recording apparatus is configured such that the feed roller is moved away from the recording medium during the time that the feed roller does not feed the recording medium.
However, the above recording apparatus needs a mechanism to move the feed roller away from the recording medium and to maintain the feed roller in a separated state, which causes the apparatus to be complicated or increased in size.